In the past, each computer in a network would try to communicate with all of the other computers in the network to determine priority with respect to a shared bus. Thus, if a network included four computers, then each computer would have to communicate with three other computers by means of a shared bus. If a fifth computer is added, then each computer would have to communicate with four other computers and so on. A ranking of computers could be established, but the problem still remained. The problem was made worse because of the distances between the computers and the length of the bus, such distances further slowing operation time. If five computers communicate through a bus, the bus would have to be five times as fast as one of the computers. Adding more computers would require lengthening the bus, but a longer bus slows down the bus speed. The more computers connected to the bus, the worse the quality of operation. The faster the bus, the more difficult it is to connect computers onto it. Further, the bus is synchronous, whereas the software is asynchronous.